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Chapter 3: How to Avoid Survey Scams?

EliteSurveySites place only legitimate paid surveys here. All of the survey panels that we post on our site are verified by us! All of them are with free registration.

Update! Now we test and verify paid surveys in more that 100 countries. Here is the list of all of them.

We all hate scammers!

No matter what way you try to make money online, chances are there is someone out there looking to earn a quick buck at your expense.

We have seen these scams come and go in the survey business for years, and today we are going to teach you how to TOTALLY avoid them.

You can find some “trusted” survey sites telling you “Warning, all other survey sites are a scam, we are the only legitimate”, this is not 100% truth. The good news is these days, survey scammers are few and far between, and the number of legitimate survey sites is far greater than ever before.

Several years ago there were more people being asked for payments to sign up to survey sites, only to be sent a list of survey sites. Instead the information they provided could be found free on Google anyway. In fact this guide you are reading is provided 100% FREE and includes some of the most valuable insights into surveys on the Internet.

Some of the common ways our team use to determine whether a survey company is legitimate is: whether they actually pay; if they are completely free to register to; are they well known; are there “unrealistic” claims of making their users millionaires.

*NOTE* These are things scammers will generally use, since they are looking to attract people in need of extra income, surveys are not huge money earners in general, only with some advanced knowledge and tips can you make a seriously good side income from them.

Now let’s discuss how you can completely avoid these survey scams.

1. Check for EliteSurveySites Verified companies ONLY! We have created a special verification for the most trusted and highest paying survey companies called “EliteSurveySites Verified”. You can find out more about this at: https://www.EliteSurveySites.com/verified-surveys.
2. Ask us. We are more than happy to help anyone reading this course, if you are unsure about a survey company you plan to join or anything you have read in this course please feel free to ask. However please note that before you ask, make sure to run a quick search on our site to make sure the question isn’t already answered there… https://www.EliteSurveySites.com. For example you can run a search on Google “the name of survey panel” elitesurveysites.
3. Search online. Our best piece of advice when searching online is: Don’t go past the first page, there really is no need. If it’s not on the first page, it’s not important. Of course however that doesn’t completely guarantee the advice is trustworthy, however use what advice you find in context. Simply go to Google and search “Survey name” + “review” or “scam” and you will get a stream of valuable information. It is also worth checking to see whether the survey site has a positive BBB rating: https://bbb.org (Better Business Bureau). Do not jump to conclusions, from time to time there are people who overdo their reviews and don’t give a “general review” but more so go out to really “slate” a company. So, you can’t trust to everything you read online.
4. Don’t pay for registration! As mentioned earlier, there really is no need to pay to register to a survey company. All of the companies that can be found on our site are 100% free to register. If you are interested, go to: https://www.elitesurveysites.com/best-paid-survey-sites. There you will find a complete list of all legit surveys we have.
5. Never share your credit card information or your SSN! No legitimate survey company will ask for this information, as long as you stick with PayPal for cash outs, you are in very safe hands.
6. Look for business contact information. Before you join any site, if you can’t find a business address or phone number, do not join. All legitimate businesses that operate online have to display this information.
7. Read their terms of use. You may also want to read their privacy policy and terms of use. This will outline exactly how the company uses any information you give them, so make sure that they aren’t talking about passing it onto third parties etc… If you wish to read more about this, you can read an article that we wrote our my blog: https://www.elitesurveysites.com/why-we-have-to-read-carefully-privacy-policy/
8. Too good to be true offers. As mentioned before, scammers will try and reel you in with exciting offers and money earning opportunities, when really the only ones making any money are they. There’s no such thing as a “get rich quick” scheme online. If you chase these you will just waste time chasing something that won’t  actually pay out.
9. Continue using the good sites. Strangely enough, registering to more sites and sticking to the ones you know are trusted helps to keep you away from the scammers. Chances are sticking with one and dabbling around with other sites from time to time will increase your risk of hitting a scam site.
10. When was the site registered? Avoid survey sites, registered in the past few months. If you are unsure about a website, check out when the domain was registered, and who it is registered to, using: https://who.is.

*NOTE* If you find any survey scams that you think others should know about, please report them to us!

Lastly, it is important to be aware of a relatively new ways scammers are using, using techniques to mimic trusted brands and websites.

A recent victim being – https://PineconeResearch.com. Scammers used their name and logo to solicit money from people, users were asked to cash a check to “test” a banking system to then receive a much larger check.

You can read more about this case here:

Pinecone Research Scams ! Important Notice for Before Sign Up with Pinecone Research Survey Panel

https://www.elitesurveysites.com/pinecone-research-scams-important-notice-for-before-sign-up-with-pinecone-research-survey-panel/

The best advice is if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Always make sure you are on the official website and if you want to ensure you really stay safe use a plugin such as www.mywot.com which will tell you the legitimacy of websites.

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